Tabs
The Duel - Steve Vai
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Transcribed by Jeff Young
[Laboriously typed up by Mardi Gras(TNT)]
Notes: Okay, this is not my work, but I heard someone wanted it and I had it lying around the house so I thought I'd do someone a favour. I've taken this from the June '95 edition of "Guitar" magazine. This is the riff that Vai plays when he has a guitar duel with actor Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid) in the film, "Crossroads".
Vai performs a series of arpeggios in a reprise of an etude by William Kanengiser (who apparently played all the classical parts in the movie). This study in arpeggios is comprised almost entirely of notes from the 
A augmentedA harmonic minor scale (A augmentedA 
BB 
C majorC 
D MajorD 
E MajorE 
FF 
G#G#). The only nondiatonic series of notes would be found in measure 3, an arpeggio, which in this case functions as a secondary dominant to the 
DmDm in measure 4.
E MajorE| 8 12^8 |
BB| 10 10 |
G+G| 5 9 9 5 |
D MajorD| 7 7 |
A augmentedA| 7 5 |
E MajorE| 5 6 8 |
E MajorE| 7 |
BB| 9 9 |
G+G| 7 9 9 7 |
D MajorD| 6 9 9 6 |
A augmentedA| 5 7 7 5 |
E MajorE| 7 |
E MajorE| 5 |
BB| 5 8 8 5 |
G+G| 6 6 |
D MajorD| 5 ^ 7 7 5 |
A augmentedA| 7 7 |
E MajorE| 5 ^ 9 9 |
E MajorE| 10 13^10 |
BB| 10 10 |
G+G| 7 10 10 7 |
D MajorD| 7 7 |
A augmentedA| 5 6 |
E MajorE| 5 10^8 |
E MajorE| |
BB| 9 12 9 |
G+G| 10 10 7 |
D MajorD| 9 12 9 6 |
A augmentedA| 8^11 8 |
E MajorE| 7 10 7 |
E MajorE| 5 8 12 8 / | / 16
BB| 5 5 10 |
G+G| 5 5 |
D MajorD| 7 7 |
A augmentedA| 7 7 |
E MajorE| 5 8 | O
What more can I say? This is just a truly cool riff. It might be a little tough to start on if you are a beginner, but never-the-less, would be a nice riff to learn and use as a warming up exercise.
